Even the wind cooperated Friday at this normally blustery naval station, remaining calm as David Beckham lit a celebratory cauldron and signaled the start of the 2012 London Olympics torch relay.

There was a hushed "oooooh" as the former England national team captain and current star for the Los Angeles Galaxy took center stage as the flame arrived in the United Kingdom from Greece on the eve of a 70-day relay. Then, as the fire roared to life in the gold and white cauldron, there was an "ahhhh" of relief. Even the vagaries of British weather wouldn't interfere this time.

"This is a big acceleration of the heartbeat," London Mayor Boris Johnson said as he summed up the moment. "This is the final furlong for us."

The flame is a symbol of peace and unity that harkens back to the origins of the games in ancient Greece. But in 2012, it was Beckham that gave it star power. The 37-year-old star was excited about the chance to welcome the world to his "hood." He's from east London, where the main stadium is located.

Beckham been involved in the London Games since the organizing committee launched its successful bid in 2005. His star power — the kind that sends children into shrieks of hysteria and turns diplomats' wives in Athens into paparazzi — is part of the reason that the International Olympic Committee took notice of the London bid over Paris, the favorite.

While Beckham the celebrity isn't shirking the attention the Olympic torch brings, Beckham the soccer star really, really wants to take part on the field.

"I've never played in an Olympic Games," he said. "Obviously, I'd love to."

"I've always made it clear that I love representing my country," he added. "I've done that quite a few times."

He's done that 115 times, to be precise, with the England team. But the Olympics have eluded him. He said that being at the flame handover ceremony Thursday night in Athens reminded him of the ancient ties to the games and that he "got goose bumps just being part of it."

Beckham has been included in coach Stuart Pearce's 80-man shortlist that will be whittled down to 18 players in the coming weeks to form Britain's first Olympic soccer squad since 1960. If chosen, he would be one of the three players over age 23 allowed in each Olympic squad.

Many cameras turned to the photogenic Beckham when the flame arrived at a Royal Navy air station in Cornwall on Friday night. The flame, traveling on the gold-painted British Airways Flight 2012, was carried off by Princess Anne, the head of the British Olympic Committee and herself a former Olympian.

On the plane itself, the flame got seats 1A and 1B. There were actually four little lanterns — just in case — and all were guarded by the Metropolitan Police's special torch security team.

This was a flight like no other. Every detail was considered. Airline passengers arriving in Britain often have to wait in long lines to clear border checks — but here some border guards flew with the passengers so they could check passports while still on board the plane before entering Britain.

London's Olympic organizers are hoping that the flame's arrival can generate excitement about the Games.

The torch will be carried all over the British Isles by 8,000 chosen volunteers, mostly local heroes. Its 8,000-mile (12,875-kilometer) journey will linger on the iconic sites — Big Ben, Stonehenge, the white cliffs of Dover — and speed past less appealing areas. It ends up July 27 at the Olympic Stadium in London.

"There is an emotional connection with this that I'm not sure other torch relays got," organizing committee chairman Sebastian Coe said. "When the torch goes through a town, people are going to recognize a lot of those torchbearers. I know a lot of the local authorities in towns who are making extra precautions for the numbers that are going to be out there."

Beckham is one of the bookies' favorites to open the Olympics by lighting the cauldron in London — and he told reporters while visiting an Athens school that he'd love the job. Other favorites include miler Roger Bannister, rower Steve Redgrave, Coe, Queen Elizabeth II or other members of Britain's royal family.

But no word on that — Coe says the decision hasn't even been discussed yet. For the moment, Beckham's just thrilled to be a part of the torch relay.

"Being here today just makes it all that real," he said in Athens. "Being handed the torch is the start of the games."

Concern grew for the stability of Spain's place in the fragile eurozone economy after reports of a rise in the level of bad loans on the books of its banks and word from the government Friday that it may have to revise its 2011 budget deficit upwards for a second time.

The Bank of Spain reported that lenders' and savings banks' bad loan ratio had risen in March to an 18-year high of 8.36 percent from 8.15 percent the previous month.

The Finance Ministry then said in a statement late Friday the deficit could reach 8.9 percent of GDP after four of its 17 regions overshot their expected budgets. The regions mentioned were Madrid, Valencia, Andalusia and Castilla-Leon.

News of the increase in bad loans followed a downgrading by credit ratings agency Moody's late Thursday of the country's banking industry.

Spain's budget deficit is higher than the 3 percent threshold that was supposedly part of the euro's economic framework. The incoming government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy earlier had to revise the figure upwards to 8.5 percent of GDP from the 6 percent forecast by the previous, Socialist government.

The ministry said it still expected to hit its target of 5.3 percent for this year's budget deficit.

Moody's acted late Thursday, citing Spanish banks' heavy load of non-performing loans amid a recession-plagued economy, their trouble raising financing on capital markets and the government's sovereign debt problems, which might make it hard for the government to come to the aid of banks.

Spain is in the eye of the storm of the eurozone debt crisis amid worries that its banks are overexposed to an imploded real estate bubble and the government, fighting recession and a nearly 25 percent jobless rate, could not afford to bail them out if it needed to.

Nuria Alvarez, a banking analyst with Madrid brokerage Renta4, warned that the rise in the bad loan ratio could mean that Spain's banks will get hit harder as the country's recession bites deep and unemployment worsens.

Shares in Bankia , SA, a recently nationalized bank that is heavily laden with toxic assets, shot back up 24 percent after losing 14 percent Thursday in a session in which they had plummeted as much as 27 percent on a media report that depositors had withdrawn €1 billion ($1.27 billion) in the week since the state took over.

Alvarez added that investors had factored in the downgrade in Spain because Moody's warned a few months ago that many European banks were up for review and could take a ratings downgrade.

Bankia customer Francisco Hidalgo, a 53-year-old tailor, said he had no plans to pull out his money, saying it would make no sense.

He spoke at a branch with just a few people doing transactions and no atmosphere of panic or jitters. Hidalgo said he wondered whether the government thought that replacing Rodrigo Rato, a former IMF managing director, with prominent career banker Jose Ignacio Goirigolzarri to run Bankia as part of the nationalization would calm things down.

"But now we see things have remained the same," Hidalgo said.

Alvaro Gonzalez, a retired business teacher, said Bankia must be really bad off.

"All I know is they must be up to here" — he put his hand above his head — "in loans for property that is not worth what they thought," Gonzalez said.

The nervousness about Spain's banks comes as the eurozone financial crisis intensifies. Political turmoil in Greece has increased the likelihood that it could leave the 17-country monetary union, a move that could have ripple effects throughout Europe and the world's financial markets.

Depositors have been pulling their funds out of Greek banks. People fear the country's financial sector might collapse if Greece left the eurozone and that their savings would become worthless if the country started using a substantially devalued new currency, such as the drachma.

Earlier this week, Moody's also downgraded the debt ratings of 26 Italian lenders as they struggled with the effect of the country's weak economy and government austerity measures.

At the close of trading Friday, Spain's IBEX35 stock index closed up 0.4 percent after having dipped by more than 2 percent shortly after trading began.

The Spanish government says it may have to revise its 2011 budget deficit upwards for a second time after spending by regional governments exceeded forecasts.

The Finance Ministry said in a statement the deficit could reach 8.9 percent of GDP after four of its 17 regions overshot their expected budgets. The regions mentioned were Madrid, Valencia, Andalusia and Castilla-Leon.

Spain's budget deficit is higher than the 3 percent threshold that was supposedly part of the euro's economic framework. The incoming government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy had to revise the figure upwards to 8.5 percent of GDP from the 6 percent forecast by the previous, Socialist government.

The ministry said in Friday's statement it still expects to hit its target of 5.3 percent for this year's budget deficit.

Germany's chancellor apparently waded into Greece's choppy political waters on Friday, when Athens said Angela Merkel suggested that the country should hold a referendum on the euro together with next month's national elections.

Berlin first refused to comment and then denied that Merkel had floated the idea during a phone conversation with Greek President Karolos Papoulias. The alleged proposal ruffled feathers across Greece's deeply fragmented political spectrum, with parties saying it was an unwarranted intervention in domestic affairs at a particularly sensitive time.

Merkel's comments were first referred to by Greek government spokesman Dimitris Tsiodras, who said in a statement: "(Merkel) also conveyed to the President thoughts on holding a referendum along with the elections, with the question of to what extent Greek citizens wish to remain in the eurozone."

Crisis-afflicted Greece is set to hold elections on June 17 to end a political deadlock after a previous vote on May 6 produced a hung Parliament, with the country's future in the eurozone potentially at stake.

Edgy markets and analysts fear a victory by parties opposed to austerity commitments could spur bailout creditors to stop the flow of rescue loans. Many argue that this would cause such widespread misery that Greece would ultimately have to abandon the 17-member currency union, jolting the global economy.

Tsiodras said a referendum was "obviously" out of the question, as it falls outside the jurisdiction of Greece's newly-appointed caretaker government.

But a German government spokeswoman said reports on the alleged referendum proposal "are inaccurate." She said the conversation between Merkel and Papoulias — a fluent German speaker — was confidential.

The spokeswoman, who spoke late Friday after consulting with the Chancellor's office, cannot be named in line with government policy.

Relations between the two countries have been turbulent over the two and a half years of Greece's acute financial crisis, which led to Athens being kept solvent by international rescue loans since May 2010.

Germany is a staunch advocate of the hugely unpopular austerity measures Greece adopted to secure the loans — to which Berlin is a major contributor.

Conservative leader Antonis Samaras, whose pro-bailout New Democracy party won a Pyrrhic victory in the May 6 vote, said Merkel's reported suggestion was "at the very least unfortunate."

"Greece doesn't need a referendum to prove its choice in favor of the euro, a choice that it's defending with bloody sacrifices," he said. "But the Greek people deserve the respect of their European partners."

Syriza Radical Left Coalition leader Alexis Tsipras — who led his anti-bailout party to a surprise second place in the last election — said Merkel was treating Greece "as a protectorate."

A presidential decree is expected Saturday to formally dissolve the short-lived Parliament elected on May 6 — which held its second and last session Friday — and call elections.

Until June 17, senior judge Panayiotis Pikrammenos is heading a caretaker government with no authority to make binding decisions. So in coming weeks all eyes will be on Germany and other European leaders for signs that they will prove flexible in their demands for new austerity measures next month and, more broadly, in Greece's bailout terms.

While Merkel has hinted that European economic policies could be supplemented with more growth-oriented measures, she has not signaled any willingness to significantly ease Athens' austerity plan.

Greek voters angry at the repeated income cuts and tax hikes, which locked the country in a deep recession and bumped unemployment to a record high, deserted mainstream pro-austerity parties in the May 6 vote. The electorate shifted to a bevy of parties from the Stalinist left to the quasi-Neo-Nazi right, which promised an end to the pain. At the same time, most of the austerity-bashers insist that they want to keep Greece in the euro.

The two seem irreconcilable.

Fitch ratings agency on Thursday to downgrade Greece to CCC, the lowest possible grade for a country that is not in default, warning of a "probable" Greek exit from the euro currency union if next month's poll results in an anti-bailout government. On Friday, Fitch also downgraded five Greek banks — National Bank of Greece, Eurobank, Alpha, Piraeus and Agricultural Bank of Greece to CCC.

Opinion polls suggest the election will be a closely contested affair between Syriza and the two mainstream parties — New Democracy and Socialist PASOK — that alternated in power for the past four decades and which have lost more than half their support.

JP Morgan Chase Bank analyst David Mackie raised the likelihood of a Greek euro exit from 20 percent to 50 percent if Syriza wins the elections and rejects the austerity measures outright.

Mackie said a Greek eurozone exit would see the country's gross domestic product shrink by as much as 25-30 percent.

In the streets of Athens, people expressed a mixture of apprehension over the future of the country and anger with politicians who let it come so far.

"For me, the political system needs to sit down and come to an understanding because they are killing our country, that is for sure," said Athens resident Georgia, who didn't give her last name. "If they don't do it, our country will be lost."

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Juergen Baetz in Berlin and Menelaos Hadjicostis in Athens contributed

Sean Penn tried to turn the conversation at the Cannes Film Festival to Haiti, hosting a fundraiser for the earthquake-ravaged and poverty-stricken country.

It was the first time the festival has used its glitzy, global spotlight to attract attention for a cause not connected with a movie.

Penn, director Paul Haggis and model Petra Nemcova brought their individual charities together for a black-tie dinner Friday evening to benefit their organizations and renew attention to the Caribbean country. Designer Giorgio Armani co-hosted the gala.

"A film festival is not simply about films, ever," Penn said. "This isn't a film, what we're doing now. It's not a film when we stand outside and we take pictures for magazines. What it all has to do with is an expression and a shared experience."

Penn, a Cannes veteran of numerous films including last year's Palme d'Or winner, "The Tree of Life," posed for photographers ahead of a press conference, and appeared ill at ease with the celebrity-fawning that often comes along with the festival.

He compared the importance of raising money for Haiti, which was devastated by an earthquake in 2010, to finding money for serious films.

"Do we stand by and wait for the studio to release the funds to make a great film or do we jump start that and show how those things can work and cut through it with fundraisers like we're going to do now?" asked the actor.

Penn also called on President Barack Obama to work with Haiti President Michel Martelly. "It is time for our formidable and elegant president to stand side by side with the new president of Haiti," Penn said.

Haggis, the director of the Oscar-winning "Crash," declined to get into politics, but said: "We're three white people sitting here from various places in the world. All we're going to do is help give these people a shot that they never had."

The U.N. Security Council has voted unanimously to impose sanctions on the leaders of last month's coup in Guinea-Bissau and key military officers preventing the return to constitutional rule.

A resolution adopted by the council on Friday named four generals and one lieutenant colonel who will be subject to a travel ban. It established a new sanctions committee which can designate others who should be subject to sanctions.

Guinea-Bissau was just weeks away from holding a presidential runoff election when soldiers attacked the front-runner's home and arrested him along with the country's interim president on April 12.

The resolution demands that "the military command takes immediate steps to restore and respect constitutional order."

Venezuela's defense minister says a military helicopter has crashed during a training flight, killing four servicemen.

Minister Gen. Henry Rangel Silva says one of the five on board the helicopter was injured but survived.

Rangel says the Russian-made MI-17 helicopter crashed during a training flight at an airport in the western town of San Felipe.

He said among those killed in Friday's crash was Col. Oscar Martinez Mora, a flight instructor and commander of a helicopter battalion in the town.

Rangel says the helicopter had been about 10 meters (11 yards) off the ground when it suddenly dropped and crashed. He says officials are investigating what might have caused the accident.

Police in Frankfurt, Germany, arrested about 400 "Blockupy" protesters Friday for defying a ban on anti-austerity demonstrations.